Thursday, September 29, 2011

Music Review: “Live from The Long Island Blues Warehouse” by The Sean Chambers Band

Sean Chambers Live

Smoking! Blues rock played with an intense inner fire that just gets hotter and hotter and deeper and deeper.

I don’t know if I have been so immediately amazed by a guitar player since the very first time I heard Stevie Ray Vaughn. Truth.

I heard the first bar of the first track, and pulled the CD out of the player because I knew I had somehow mixed it up with a Mike Bloomfield. Nope. This is Sean Chambers. He may cause you to recall Luther Allison, Buddy Guy and a few other fellars that you suspect went down to the cross roads and traded in his soul for a chance to mesmerize the world with a guitar, but this is Sean Chambers. Live From The Long Island Blues Warehouse

Sean Chambers had to have graduated summa cum laude from “blues college”. Turns out that isn’t far from the truth. He served as the guitar player and musical director for the legendary Hubert Sumlin for five years. He toured world wide and in the end, Guitarist Magazine named him one of the Top 50 Blues Guitarist of the Last Century.

‘In The “Winter Time” Sean Chambers Band

He’s even got a voice that reminds you of Stevie Ray Vaughn, and looks a little bit like Mike Bloomfield, and he writes original blues tunes. very good original blues tunes. Seven of the tracks were written by Chambers , and one with bass player, Tim Blair.

The opening track, “Dixie 45” is an original and sets the tone. It opens with a menacing bass “thrum” and then Sean comes sliding and screaming in on this instrumental that displays every tool in the box. On “Love Can Find A Way” we get a blues shuffle, with some stop time thrown in for good measure. Track three is the first cover tune, Fred James’ “Full Moon On Main Street” one of the bands standards on live sets. This is a slow blues that allows Chambers to stretch out and show off his emotionally blazing solo work.

“Strong Temptation” is another original and Sean treats us to his alternate rhythm/solo work in the finest power trio tradition. Then comes a slide guitar and hot licks cover of Elmore James “Dust My Broom” followed by the last cover tune on the album, Bill McLess’ “Crazy For Loving You”. There is something on “Crazy” that reminds me of a Tom Waits vocal; a whiskey tortured voice sung to the moon, in an alley, way after midnight.

“Danger Zone” is one of my favorite tunes from the album,the guitar work is rapid fire articulate blues and a great “forgive your sins” kind of tune.

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“Too Much Blues” is another memorable scorching display of guitar mastery that will have you tapping your foot and ordering another round of drinks. there just isn’t much Sean Chambers can’t do with a guitar. Maybe split and atom? Perform brain surgery? Save your soul? No, I don’t think that even those are out of the realm of possibility. “Hip Shake Boogie” isn’t the old standard, but another instrumental original that lead into that ‘atom splitting, brain surgery realm. then comes “in The Winter Time”.It’s a ten minute long opus that begs and wails and celebrates the blues with a feeling that goes beyond virtuosity and leaves you speechless. And it saves your soul.

Sean Chambers is the real deal, and the devil just may have gotten the worst of that trade.

The Dirty Lowdown

Copyright © 2011 Robert Carraher All Rights Reserved

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